Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of Analysis_DOS_Attacks_Political_Moment

Timestamp:

Aug 18, 2015, 10:30:53 AM (10 years ago)

Author:

Jackie Smith

Comment:

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Analysis_DOS_Attacks_Political_Moment

@@ +1 @@
+'''A new level of attack on the movement'''
+
+
+The attack on reproductive choice organizations – the National Network
+of Abortion Funds and its companion sites – whose websites and mail
+lists are hosted by May First, and the subsequent attack on May First
+itself, is a new level of attack on our movement. This is an attack on
+the politics and organizations in the struggle for reproductive choice
+and justice for women – especially working class and women of color. And
+it is also an attack on the movement technology organization, May First,
+which provides technological support for these organizations and struggles.
+
+Technology and social media provide much of the connectivity so critical
+for today’s social movement communication, mobilizations, and campaigns.
+To go after that technological connectivity and the organization that is
+the provider takes the attack on the movement to a higher level.
+The message is loud and clear. Our movement has to understand the high
+stakes of the current political moment, in terms of our politics and our
+technological connectivity. They are deeply interrelated, and we have to
+think and act on them holistically. In other parts of the world, as
+movements communicated and mobilized through the internet and social
+media, governments shut them down.
+
+Without movement technology – safe from oppositional and government
+attack – our movement will not be able to remain connected, mobilized,
+and in political alignment. The intense attack on the National Network
+of Abortion Funds and its companion sites, and on May First is a
+question of women’s right to reproductive choice and justice and
+protection of the technology that connects the struggle. This attack is
+also an attack on the movement – on all of our struggles and on our
+ability technologically to safely communicate and stay connected.
+
+(Walda Katz-Fishman)
+
+
+
+COMMENTS AND ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS to Guide our work:
+
+===
+Online attacks against women's rights and reproductive or sexual
+rights groups in particular are not uncommon. Perhaps in the US they are
+not as common as in other parts of the world. But, in the scope of
+online vulnerability, sexual rights groups remain at the top of that
+spectrum and always have been.
+
+Second, while this attack against their and our online infrastructure is
+by no means minor or unimportant, I do want to remind us that women who
+seek out abortion and those who help them face violence and abuse
+offline. The murder, rape and violence that is and has been waged
+against women and men who fight for reproductive and sexual rights would
+be important to acknowledge. It's a systematic campaign that has been
+going on for decades. DDoS is merely a new tactic in a much larger
+campaign of violence against women's bodies.
+
+Adding these considerations into the text I believe will better
+contextualize what we mean by "high stakes". These deeper reflections
+will also allow us to make the connection between individual/isolated
+online attacks and offline attacks, all of which are attacks on the
+movement.
+(Mallory)
+----